Archive for the 'Government Reform' Tag Under 'Orange Punch' Category

Orange Punch readers know how we feel about most laws passed by politicians. They should be few and legitimate, but instead are too many and tools for rewarding friends and punishing enemies. In short, they should protect rights, not invent new ones.

Laws generally seek to take from someone something of value, often not merely cash, and bestow on someone else a benefit, oh say, like health care insurance.

We're pleased to see - but not surprised to see - that the majority of Americans believe there are too many unnecessary laws. At least according to a Rasmussen Reports Poll. It found 68 percent of American adults surveyed said there are too many laws in the U.S. How many think there aren't too many? 19 percent.

We're not sure how many of those folks are influenced by the monumental increase in laws imposed by Obamacare, a conglomeration of rules and regulations and mandates so voluminous its principle backers didn't know what was included when they voted on it.

Because laws by definition restrict behavior as well as impose costs, it is probably preferable to understand their full impact before adopting them. Here is a wonderful graphic that shows just a peek at just one of the countless new "laws" imposed by Obamacare. (click on it twice to get it full size, then you also can zoom for the details)

The New York Times, that bastion of conservative ideology (just kidding), reports that Obamacare's increase in insurance coverage for millions of Americans will make even worse the dramatic shortage of doctors.

Remember the president promising that "Health insurance reform will not affect the choice of doctors you have today and it won't affect your relationship with your doctor. The legislation aims to increase the number of primary care providers, giving you greater access to doctors than you have today."

Oh well. He forgot to mention "unless your doctor flees," which doctors are doing in great numbers and which the Times says they will do even more once Obamacare kicks in by 2014.

If those unintended (but utterly foreseeable) consequences aren't enough, chew on these: Columnist Dan Walters says that it may appear to be a good thing that California added 84,200 jobs or "an astounding 50 percent of the national job increase" in May and June, but that isn't such a big deal. Why?

"More disturbingly, there were fewer Californians receiving paychecks in June than thee were 10 years earlier, in 2002, even though the state's population had increased by 3 million..." Walters writes.

"More than $2 billion in California taxpayer money has apparently been stashed in hundreds of special funds unaccounted for by the state Department of Finance, a newspaper reported on Friday.

"An examination of more than 500 special fund accounts, like the $54 million discrepancy in state parks money, showed a $2.3 billion "discrepancy" between state controller and Department of Finance numbers, according to the San Jose Mercury News ( http://bit.ly/MPdkls)."

It turns out that state government operates pretty much on an "honor system."

How far would a politician get if he spoke plainly and you didn't have to decipher or read between the lines to understand him? Yeah, not far.

Here's today's example. Gov. Jerry Brown reportedly pooh-pooh critics of his boondoggle Moonbeam Express (sorta) high-speed rail. Said Brown, "The world is full of NIMBYs and fearful men...This is a bold move...don't worry about the polls."

Allow us to put that into plain English.

"Fearful men" is an allusion to people who have the audacity to question why spending too many billions of dollars to lay 130 miles of track connecting the center of the state to the center of the state might not be prudent.

"It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood." - James Madison

Last we checked, about half of Americans don't pay income tax. Is it surprising then that so many Americans want to receive benefits paid for by income taxes? When a benefit is offered at little or no cost to the one receiving it, how many people have the strength of character to turn it down on principle?

Yes, we know, some people are flummoxed by the mere raising of "principle" as a basis for turning down something of value provided at little or no cost to them. What principle might that be? Might we suggest independence? As opposed to dependence.

On that point, might we ask what to conclude from this next dreary statistic?

"A record of 8,733,461 workers took federal disability insurance payments in June 2012, according to the Social Security Administration. That was up from 8,707,185 in May," reported CNSNews.com.

Either government work is becoming more strenuous or even dangerous, or something else is going on. Perhaps more people are deciding to depend on government benefits? Could that be it?

From vacation land, yours truly was stirred from his slumber this morning. The unfortunate news arrived from D.C.: Obamacare is the law of the land.

As we have argued from Day 1, and as the Supreme Court concurred, it is unconstitutional for the federal government to force people to buy a private product.

But as we have warned (it seems to us since even before Day 1), the Supreme Court says it's entirely constitutional for the federal government to tax you.

The way to uphold Obamacare's mandate that people buy health insurance or pay a penalty is to consider the penalty a tax, the court reasoned. And in effect the supremes have now said anything can be taxed.

We've made this point before, but today certainly is reason to repeat it: when you give government power over you, why is anyone surprised that government uses it?

Too many people are outraged at the wrong thing. What Obama did last week was entirely legal. It was at odds with what Congress did, which also was entirely legal. People are getting angry at the wrong things.

When we hand over to government the power to do things to us and for us, why is anyone surprised when government does? The problem isn't with Obama.

The problem is with people who hand over powers to government to reward and punish, then become astonished when government rewards and punishes in ways we disagree with. By our count that is reason number 4,391 why government should be small and limited.